Could Coco Gauff achieve the “Channel slam” by following the French Open with a Wimbledon title? That was the question being asked before the tournament, but an answer was not long in coming: no. On Tuesday the second seed was knocked out in the first round at SW19, with the biggest shock how easily she was dispatched by the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
The 21-year-old Gauff was at first outpunched and ultimately outplayed, but in the middle came a collapse all of her own making. An inability to match up against Yastremska’s power in a series of fierce rallies only led to Gauff taking more risks, which rarely came off. When her serve began to depart her in the first set tie-break the writing was on the wall.
Gauff won the hearts of Wimbledon as a 15-year-old in 2019 when, in her first match at the championships, she beat Venus Williams to spark a run to the fourth round. She has not made it past that point since, however, and seemed very short on ideas of how to play her way out of the trouble Yastremska was inflicting on her.
For the Ukrainian, who has been the subject of media coverage reporting her apparent allergy to grass, this was a night to remember.
Alongside her run to the semis in Melbourne last year this is among the greatest moments of her career and it was achieved apparently nervelessly, earning three breaks of serve in the deciding second set.
The long-running of matches on Centre Court caused this fixture to be moved late in the day to No 1 Court and it was played out in front of a half-full arena. That did not stop Yastremska from approaching the match with maximum intensity, though, forcing Gauff on to the back foot from the off with her forehand, a weapon that was as fast as it was precise and stayed consistently low.
Gauff had the bigger serve, but it was not enough to rattle Yastremska on the defensive and the Ukrainian broke serve at 4-2. In response Gauff simply put more power into her strokes, producing some mesmerising exchanges but also increasing the errors. Only rarely did she think instead to switch up her shot selection, with Yastremska much more vulnerable when forced to change her angles of approach before booming her drives.
Gauff broke back at 3-5 and dragged the first set to a tie-break but any hopes of a revival among a crowd which heavily favoured the American were soon extinguished. In the tie-break she served two double faults at precisely the wrong moment and in apparent slow motion.
It was like watching her match plans fall down around her, not to mention any sense of impregnability that she might have attempted to convey to her opponent, and from there things only got worse.
Broken at the first attempt in the second set, Gauff tried once again to plug herself into the mains but the outcome was even wilder and the writing was on the wall. Yastremska broke again for 3-1 and then for 5-1 and a call from the stands of “Don’t worry Coco, don’t worry!” had a distinctly forlorn tone to it. For Yastremska, meanwhile, there was nothing but delight.
The second day of competition at Wimbledon featured other high-profile departures from the women’s draw, including the world No 3, the American Jessica Pegula, who was beaten in straight sets – 6-2, 6-3 – by Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy in just 58 minutes.
Pegula praised her opponent, saying: “She played absolutely incredible tennis,” but was at a loss to explain her defeat. “Do I think I played the best match ever? No. But I definitely don’t think I was playing bad. I haven’t lost first round of a slam in a very long time, so that sucks. I’m upset that I wasn’t able to turn anything around. But at the same time, I do feel like she played kind of insane.”
Elsewhere, the Czech two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova bade farewell with a 6-3, 6-1 loss to the American 10th seed, Emma Navarro. The 35-year-old Kvitovawildcard, who returned to the tour in February after the birth of son, Petr, last summer, plans to retire after this year’s US Open. Speaking on court, the 2011 and 2014 champion said said: “Thank you for the atmosphere, it was wonderful to play on this beautiful court. Congrats Emma. I wish we could have played for a bit longer. I never dreamed of winning Wimbledon and I did it twice so this is something very special.”
